Holy Cross Hospital Malpractice

Holy Cross Hospital (Silver Spring, Maryland) and Holy Cross Germantown Hospital (Germantown, Maryland) are both units of the same company, Holy Cross Health, also based in Silver Spring.

This hospital system has had its share of patient-safety problems. This is not just a medical malpractice lawyer’s view of these facilities. Earlier versions of this page discussed a D safety grade for Holy Cross Hospital. That grade is no longer current. In Spring 2026, both Holy Cross Hospital in Silver Spring and Holy Cross Germantown Hospital received a C from Leapfrog.

With that unpleasantness out there as a backdrop, let’s look at these hospitals.

Whereas Holy Cross Hospital has been around since 1963, the Germantown hospital opened in 2014. One of the two has a long track record, while the other has much less history behind it.

What the two hospitals have very much in common is their connection through Holy Cross Health, a Catholic, not-for-profit healthcare system. Holy Cross Health, in turn, is a unit of Trinity Health of Livonia, Michigan, one of the largest Catholic healthcare systems in the country.

Holy Cross Hospital

Holy Cross Hospital takes pains to point out that it serves the young and the old. The Silver Spring hospital has 449 beds and is a teaching hospital.

Holy Cross delivers more babies than any other hospital in Maryland and has long highlighted its maternity and neonatal programs. The hospital also operates a Level III NICU for premature babies and newborns with serious medical problems.

Holy Cross also cites its neuroscience program, cancer care, surgical services, senior care, and emergency medicine.

This maternity volume is important for our purposes because Holy Cross has also been the defendant, or the site of the care, in a number of birth injury and obstetrical malpractice lawsuits over the years.

Holy Cross Germantown Hospital

Holy Cross Germantown Hospital opened in October 2014 on the campus of Montgomery College.

By its own account, the hospital is a state-of-the-art facility. It is much smaller than the Silver Spring hospital, with 78 beds, and provides emergency, surgical, maternity, behavioral health, and general hospital services.

It calls attention to its full-service emergency department, private patient rooms, maternity services, and Level II Special Care Nursery.

Most of the older verdicts and malpractice cases on this page involve Holy Cross Hospital in Silver Spring simply because that hospital has been around much longer.

Birth Injury and Obstetrical Malpractice at Holy Cross

Holy Cross is one of the major maternity providers in the region, delivering roughly 10,000 babies each year. That is a lot of labor and delivery care, which is why birth injury malpractice deserves its own discussion here.

Our law firm, Miller & Zois, focuses heavily on birth injury lawsuits. The calls we get involving Holy Cross tend to fall into familiar categories. Over the years, lawsuits have alleged shoulder dystocia injuries, fetal distress that was not addressed quickly enough, newborn respiratory problems, C-section injuries, failures to properly monitor labor, and permanent brain or nerve injuries suffered by children.

Not every birth injury case starts in the delivery room. Sometimes the critical mistake happens earlier, when fetal monitoring shows a developing problem, and nobody responds soon enough. Other cases turn on what happens after birth, such as a newborn who is clearly struggling but does not receive the diagnosis or treatment the situation requires.

None of this means Holy Cross commits malpractice because it delivers a large number of babies. Volume alone proves nothing. But when a hospital handles this many pregnancies and deliveries, obstetrical and newborn care naturally become an important part of its malpractice history. And when something does go wrong, these cases can be among the most serious medical malpractice claims because the consequences may follow a child for the rest of his or her life.

Settlements and Verdicts Involving Holy Cross

Holy Cross has not had a lot of publicly reported plaintiff verdicts in recent years. Clearly, bad malpractice verdicts would not help the image of any hospital. Below is a list of settlements and verdicts involving Holy Cross or care provided there.

Not every verdict below was necessarily entered against Holy Cross itself. Where that matters, we explain it.

• Montgomery County: $826,646 Verdict. A woman underwent a C-section at Holy Cross Hospital in Silver Spring. The plaintiff alleged that the surgeon negligently cut her bladder while separating scar tissue from a prior C-section. The bladder laceration was more than three inches long and required repair. A Montgomery County jury awarded $826,646, including $750,000 in noneconomic damages and $75,656 for future medical expenses.
• Montgomery County: More Than $3 Million Verdict. A patient went to the Holy Cross emergency room with abdominal pain, nausea, and vomiting and later underwent gallbladder surgery. His family alleged that the surgeon’s negligence caused complications that resulted in his death. The jury returned a verdict of more than $3 million against the surgeon. Holy Cross had originally been named as a defendant but was dismissed before trial. So this is a verdict involving care that began at Holy Cross, not a verdict against Holy Cross Hospital.
• Maryland: $370,000 Verdict. A 32-year-old woman goes to Holy Cross Hospital complaining of abdominal pain, diarrhea, and vomiting. The doctor recommends a laparoscopic cholecystectomy. The procedure is performed, and two days later the woman is discharged. That same day she goes back to the doctor who performed the procedure, complaining of flank and abdominal pain. She is diagnosed with a small bowel obstruction and persistent bile leak, and transferred to Prince George’s Hospital where that same doctor is the chief of surgery. At PG Hospital, it is determined that the woman also has a right hepatic artery tear. She continues to leak bile, becomes septic, and undergoes numerous blood transfusions and surgeries before her release almost two weeks later. She brings a claim against the doctor, alleging that her common bile duct was damaged during the first surgery and that the doctor failed to realize this prior to discharging her. Additionally, she alleges that the doctor was negligent in his treatment of the woman and failed to refer her to a specialist. The doctor claims the woman was stable when he discharged her, but a jury awards the plaintiff $200,000 for medical bills, $60,000 for economic losses, $100,000 for non-economic damages, and $10,000 for loss of consortium.
• Montgomery County: $1,075,000 Verdict. A newborn infant suffers fetal distress and brain damage during childbirth. His parents bring a claim alleging the failure to properly monitor and provide prenatal care. A jury awarded the family $1,075,000.
• Montgomery County: $1,653,911 Verdict. A pregnant woman is discharged from the hospital due to undergoing false labor. Before her discharge, she is vomiting. Once she gets home, she begins to bleed and goes back to the hospital. On the way to the hospital, she gives birth to her son, who unfortunately dies during the birth as he is strangled by the umbilical cord. The woman brings a claim against the hospital, alleging failure to diagnose the progress of labor and the failure to perform proper tests to determine the stage of labor. The hospital admits liability but argues the extent of the damages claimed, and the award is reduced to $1,400,000 due to statutory caps.

Defense Verdicts for Holy Cross

Holy Cross has also won a number of defense verdicts:

• Montgomery County: Defense Verdict. Case against a gastroenterologist alleging failure to diagnose and treat patient after an aborted surgical procedure.
• Montgomery County: Defense Verdict. Physician allegedly failed to accurately diagnose elderly man’s respiratory disease resulting in his death.
• Montgomery County: Defense Verdict. Cast applied by orthopedic surgeon allegedly caused a “cast burn” that went undiagnosed.
• Montgomery County: Defense Verdict. Geriatric medicine expert allegedly failed to recognize and treat weight loss and urological complaints leading to decedent’s death.
• Montgomery County: Defense Verdict. Neurologist and other treating physicians allegedly failed to diagnose patient’s Lyme disease.

The common thread in all of these cases that went to trial is that many of them were a long time ago. Holy Cross does not appear to be letting a large number of medical malpractice claims get to publicly reported jury verdicts.

Lawsuits Against Holy Cross

In spite of the fact that Holy Cross is not letting many cases get to trial, Maryland medical malpractice lawyers continue to file lawsuits against these hospitals. This is a sampling.

A lawsuit is an allegation. It does not mean Holy Cross or an individual doctor was ultimately found negligent.

• Pinkney v. Holy Cross Health, Inc. – medical malpractice lawsuit filed against Holy Cross Health and physicians.
• Tabi v. Mid-Atlantic Permanente Medical Group, P.C., et al. – medical malpractice lawsuit naming Holy Cross Health doing business as Holy Cross Hospital, physician groups, and individual doctors.
• Moya-Saldarriaga v. Holy Cross Health, Inc., et al. – medical malpractice lawsuit against Holy Cross Health, Capital Women’s Care, Community Neonatal Associates, and individual healthcare providers.
• Seck v. Tait, et al. – medical malpractice lawsuit naming Holy Cross Germantown Hospital and Holy Cross Health.
• Bond v. Holy Cross Health, Inc., et al. – medical malpractice lawsuit naming Holy Cross Health, an OB/GYN practice, and healthcare providers.
• Simmons v. Holy Cross Hospital – a patient undergoes parathyroid surgery and alleges that her vocal cords were injured during the procedure, leaving her unable to speak normally.
• Johnson v. Holy Cross Health – doctors allegedly fail to assess the airway before undergoing intubation, resulting in permanent damage to the patient’s ability to speak.
• Thompson v. Holy Cross Hospital – birth injury lawsuit alleging a failure to have an appropriate neonatal team present despite meconium during labor, resulting in meconium aspiration and permanent brain injury.
• Williams v. Holy Cross – medical staff allegedly drops a baby, resulting in permanent injury.
• Avery v. Holy Cross Health – knee replacement medical malpractice claim involving an alleged injury to the popliteal artery and loss of blood flow to the leg.
• Adu v. Holy Cross Health – birth injury involving shoulder dystocia and an alleged permanent brachial plexus injury.
• Freeman v. Holy Cross – wrongful death lawsuit involving a premature newborn and an alleged failure to diagnose and treat respiratory illness and infection.
• Brown v. Holy Cross – pain pump refill malpractice lawsuit involving an alleged medication error that caused an overdose and neurological injuries.
• Walker v. Holy Cross Hospital – postoperative malpractice claim alleging failure to timely diagnose and treat sepsis after colon surgery, resulting in organ failure and death.
• McKenzie v. Holy Cross – negligence claim involving care at Holy Cross Hospital.
• Sullivan v. Holy Cross – torts/negligence; wrongful death.
• Bern v. Holy Cross – negligence, medical malpractice.
• Blackmon v. Holy Cross – negligence, medical malpractice.
• Hussey v. Holy Cross – negligence, professional malpractice.
• McCorkle v. Holy Cross – negligence, medical malpractice.
• Purnell v. Holy Cross – torts/negligence, medical malpractice.

Holy Cross Emergency Department

Both Holy Cross hospitals operate full-service emergency departments. The Silver Spring emergency room is particularly busy, treating tens of thousands of patients every year.

Holy Cross began a major renovation of the Silver Spring emergency department in 2026. The work is expected to continue through 2028 while the ER remains open.

Several lawsuits involving Holy Cross started with care in the emergency room. The $370,000 gallbladder case above began with abdominal complaints. The more recent multimillion-dollar gallbladder case also started in the Holy Cross ER.

Other Holy Cross lawsuits have involved airway management, failure to diagnose serious illness, premature discharge, and problems responding to a patient’s deteriorating condition.

That is more useful to us than simply saying that emergency room malpractice can involve stroke, sepsis, or heart attacks. The question is what has actually happened at this hospital.

Who Defends Holy Cross?

Holy Cross has experienced medical malpractice defense lawyers.

Wharton Levin Ehrmantraut & Klein has had a longstanding relationship with Holy Cross. One of the firm’s founders has stated that he served as counsel to Holy Cross Hospital for more than 30 years.

There is nothing unusual about a large hospital having experienced defense lawyers. But plaintiffs should understand that Holy Cross and its insurers know how to defend medical malpractice claims.

What Drives the Value of a Holy Cross Malpractice Case?

The Holy Cross cases above make the problem with talking about an “average” malpractice settlement pretty obvious. You are trying to average together cases that have almost nothing in common except the name of the hospital.

A bladder injury during a C-section is one kind of case. Permanent brachial plexus damage from shoulder dystocia is an entirely different claim.  So an average that pools those cases together is effectively useless.  Putting all of those cases into one bucket and calculating an average might produce a number, but not a useful one.

The largest malpractice cases are usually the ones where the injury does not go away.  It is a rare case where the victim had a complete recovery and our lawyers accepted the case.  To justify the cost of a medical malpractice lawsuit that quickly costs over $100,000 to bring, we need a permanent injury in most cases or we run the risk of getting less money than we put into the case — leaving the client with nothing.

Our firm handles a lot of birth injury cases involving labor, delivery, and newborn care. When a child has a permanent neurological injury and may need therapy, medical treatment, equipment, supervision, or hands-on assistance for decades, the future economic losses alone can become enormous.  These cases can reach tens of millions of dollars very quickly.

But injury severity is only half of the equation. You still have to prove malpractice. A terrible outcome does not prove that a doctor or hospital did something wrong. The medical records have to support the claim. A case becomes much stronger when those records show something concrete, such as fetal distress, dangerous bleeding, impaired blood flow, a worsening infection, or another developing emergency that should have prompted action and did not.

Ordering Medical Records from Holy Cross

Medical records are important in determining what the doctors and nurses did, and whether their actions complied with the standard of care.

Holy Cross allows patients to request records through MyChart or directly from the hospital’s medical records department.

For Holy Cross Hospital in Silver Spring:

Holy Cross Hospital Medical Records Department
1500 Forest Glen Road
Silver Spring, Maryland 20910
301-754-7180
Fax: 301-754-7175

For Holy Cross Germantown Hospital:

Holy Cross Germantown Hospital Medical Records Department
19801 Observation Drive
Germantown, Maryland 20876
301-557-6180
Fax: 301-557-5551

In a Holy Cross birth injury case, the fetal monitoring strips can be some of the most important records in the entire case. In a surgical case, the operative report, anesthesia record, nursing notes, laboratory results, imaging, and medication records may tell the story.

The records you need depend on what went wrong.

Getting a Lawyer for Your Malpractice Claim

Our medical malpractice lawyers bring lawsuits against hospitals that do not hold up their end of the bargain. Call us today at 800-553-8082 or get a free, no-obligation online case review.